398 Miscellanies. 



Association, and under the advice of the Royal Society, for obtain- 

 ing a series of magnetic observations in different quarters of the globe, 

 in conjunction with a naval expedition in the southern hemisphere, 

 under the command of Capt. James Clark Ross, and read extracts 

 from letters of Professor Lloyd and Major Sabine, relating to the 

 preparation for the undertaking. 



Professor Bache further stated, that on submitting the circular ad- 

 dressed to him by the Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, with 

 extracts from the letters before referred to, and other information as 

 to the nature and importance of the results to be obtained by this com- 

 bined system of magnetic observations, to the Building Committee of 

 the Girard College, through their Architect, they had, with creditable 

 liberality, given orders for the erection of an observatory suited to the 

 observations contemplated, and to the instruments already in the pos- 

 session of the Trustees of the College. 



Professor Bache submitted the plans of the observatory drawn by 

 Thos. U. Walter, Esq. Architect. 



Mr. Justice made some remarks in continuation of those offered at 

 the last meeting of the Society, in support of his opinion of a gyrato- 

 ry motion in the tornado, of the 31st July, 1839, the destructive ef- 

 fects of which were felt about seventeen miles north of Philadelphia. 



October A, 1839. — The Committee, consisting of Dr. Dunglison, Mr. 

 Kane, and Mr. Lea, to whom were referred a letter of the Rev. Charles 

 Gutzlaff to John Vaughan, Esq. dated Macao, January 2, 1839, and 

 the letter of Peter S. Du Ponceau, Esq. to the same gentleman, dated 

 Philadelphia, September 20, 1839, made their report, which was read 

 and accepted. 



The communication of Mr. Gutzlaff was suggested by the disserta- 

 tion of Mr. Du Ponceau, " On the nature and character of the Chinese 

 system of writing." As the results of his reflection and observation, 

 Mr. Gutzlaff affirms, that China was the great centre of civilization, 

 whence it diverged to all the countries of Eastern and Southern Asia; 

 the colonists from China driving the autochthonous tribes into the 

 mountains, and incorporating the country itself, including Tunkin and 

 Annam, with the central kingdom. A constant influx of Chinese also 

 took place into Korea, but the emigration to Japan and the Loo Choo 

 Islands was less extensive. 



Chinese words, and the Chinese art of writing, were thus introduced 

 into these countries ; Chinese books became their literature ; and, like 

 the Latin in the middle ages, the Chinese was the language of the 

 learned. Yet all the nations that have adopted the Chinese mode of 

 writing, speak a language more or less distinct from the written idiom. 

 The difierent nations, too, who employ the Chinese characters, call 



